Wednesday 26 February 2014

A SECOND CHANCE


Saturday 5:30p.m.- The Big Bang!
 
It was about 5:30p.m. when all of a sudden I heard a loud sound out of my window. Shortly after that I heard the voices of little children in the neighborhood laughing as a more elderly female voice scolded at someone I was yet to find out. I looked out of my window and saw a young boy in his teens lying on the tarred road while the little kids surrounded him and just watched. At this point the angry girl turned and began walking away while the boy still lay there with his bicycle in a pretty bad shape. Immediately I ran out of the house to the scene and told the kids to move back. Now what I saw got me shaking in my boots.

There was blood on the road and he was foaming from his mouth with his tongue out. His eyes had overturned backwards and he kept on shaking vigorously. This incident happened in CampSic Buea in Cameroon and by the very nature of the environment in which we lived getting to the road was a long walk if you had no car. It was a closed residential area and I stood there wondering what I was going to do. The first thing that came to my mind and which I did was to grab the boy who was now in an unconscious state but still shaking in my arms and I began to pray while I crying out for help. My younger brother turned Hussein Bolt at that moment began racing to the road to get a cab. From no where we saw a car coming into the neighborhood and we pleaded for a lift. The good Samaritan helped me with the boy as we got into the car and headed off to the hospital. My shirt and hands were covered with blood. His head was swollen and I just prayed and kept saying "You will live and not die" as I watched him fight in his spirit to stay alive. In the hospital things went from bad to worse. We placed him on the bed and he began to shake with his chest rising up as if it was his last breath and then falling back again. I held him tight now with the help of another nurse. The contractions got stronger and I could see how he struggled with life leaving his body still in his unconscious state. 

His Story

The story about this boy was a sad one. He was the first child of a family of 4 with a mother who was just poor farmer. His father had just past on a few months earlier and his step mum and kids organized and threw them out of the house. A fight ensued and he threatened to deal with his step mum and family. This landed him in prison but being a minor, he was sent to a correctional facility for delinquent kids after spending a few months in jail. It was from this correctional facility that he got the bike from a friend and began riding in our neighborhood before this calamity befell him. He had been riding his bicycle when he hit the girl I mentioned at the begin and this projected him off unto the tarred road where he made a direct head-on collision of  full impact with the road. So back to my story. I paid the money needed by the Doctor's to begin the work on him only to be told that they didn't have the right equipment to know what the main issue was. You can imagine how angry I became. To cut a long story short a lot happened in between and finally in another hospital (very expensive one at that), it was revealed to us that the impact he made with road resulted in him cutting a vein at the back of his neck and because he hadn't been attended to for a couple of days (due to the lack of money and the hospital demanding we pay before anything could commence), some purse had begun accumulating in his brain and it required an expensive operation if he had to make it alive and still be sane.

Help! Help!

I never knew this boy but I felt that if I didn't do something about it nobody would and so I went on radio, wrote letters to churches, to my family members, friends, youth ministries in fact I did everything I could to raise money for the operation. Our largest single donation came from African Renaissance Ambassador (http://www.araforchange.com). Through this help and all the support I got this boy was operated upon and today he is alive! This happened in 2009 or thereabout. He had a thanksgiving service in Church which I attended alongside my Youth Aglow friends. Due to the impact on his brain I was told he experienced memory loss but began to remember a few things again. I am sure he is doing very well today. Thanks to the generous contributions of organizations like African Renaissance Ambassador and others, a precious life was saved. The boy gave his life to Christ and made up his mind to serve the Lord. Who knows where he would have gone to if he had died on the spot. That's the grace that brings a Second Chance. Please do well to like the facebook page of ARA Corp to keep tabs with the work they are doing around the world by click here https://www.facebook.com/African.Renaissance.Ambassador. It would be great if you also invite your friends to do same. Be a blessing today to someone for Life is Short. Have a good life!

Saturday 8 February 2014

SIX TRUISMS THAT AREN’T TRUE.




According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary the word tru·ism - noun \ˈtrü-ˌi-zəm\ is defined as an undoubted or self-evident truth; especially: one too obvious for mention.
I am sure from this definition you can already begin to recall certain truisms you have heard over and over again that they have now taken a life of their own to become self-fulfilling prophecy. However, please pardon me for what I am about to do here and that is to disabuse conventional wisdom. Isn’t it amazing that just because we hear something being repeated over and over again on a massive scale by people who don’t know any better, we let it go unchallenged? In some cases even, these blatant lies pass for the truth because they sound so reasonable enough that people rarely do sit back to think through them. But mind you popular opinion is seldom always the right opinion. So what are some of these truisms that I dare say aren’t true? I list 6 of them here for you. You can later on sit back and try to recall the ones you know I haven’t mentioned and try to access them in the light of your own understanding. Let’s go…

A Bird in hand is worth two in the bush

Pitfall- An idea that is based on “Playing it safe”

If Bill Gates had thought this way, he doubtless wouldn’t have quit Harvard to go found Microsoft. The greatest inventions and contributions in our world have been made by men and women who defied the odds and left the birds in their hands to go chase after the “uncertain” two in the bush and yes they came back with more than just two birds!

When we get to that bridge we will cross it

Pitfall- Hinged on “Short-sightedness”

The people who have turned their world around are people who crossed bridges in their minds even before they got there. People who say things like this are the very ones who refuse to make plans for their lives believing that fate and destiny will help plan for them. They lack a sense of purpose and vision.

Life begins at 40

Pitfall- Laziness and Excuses for under achievement 

This one is very funny. Why would I wait to begin life at 40 when I can be begin to enjoy everyday life today if I choose to? Life doesn’t begin at 40 rather by 40 hate it or love it, you’re approximately half way gone through life’s journey. So you better start enjoying life today before you become filled with regrets.

Love is blind

Pitfall- Self-will and infatuation

Do you really think so? Someone was quipped that, “If you think that love is blind, marriage will open your eyes”. Funny yet very true. I have seen people profess love, love, and more love. Then they get married and after a couple of years, they want out. That’s because their love was blind to begin with. Your love should better have eyes from the start so you don’t make the wrong choice.

It takes money to make money

Pitfall- Lack of initiative

People have started and grown profitable businesses without having a single penny. I can confidently tell you two areas in which you can make money without requiring you to pump in more money; Web development and Teaching. All it takes is your brain and skills. Those are your real assets not cash.

The end justifies the means

Pitfall- False judgment

So what we are saying here is that if I rob and kill a rich man in order to feed suffering children in Sudan then automatically the fact that I am helping alleviate poverty in Sudan (the end) justifies the fact that I robbed and killed a rich man (the means). Nothing could be further from the truth. The means therefore justifies the end.

I shared just 6 of these truisms here that aren’t true. Can you remember some more? Please share with us in a comment. Cheers!